THROUGH THE LENS
THE PANDEMIC AND BLACK LIVES MATTER
LAUREN WALSH
Cover image: Tape is placed over the mouths of figures adorning a historic building near where protesters affiliated with Black Lives Matter and other groups have congregated in a park outside City Hall in Lower Manhattan on June 30, 2020, in New York City.
Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images.
First published 2022 by Routledge 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
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© 2022 Lauren Walsh
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Walsh, Lauren, interviewer.
Title: Through the Lens : The Pandemic and Black Lives Matter / Lauren Walsh.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2022. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021047810 (print) | LCCN 2021047811 (ebook) | ISBN 9781032186153 (paperback) | ISBN 9781032186146 (hardback) | ISBN 9781003255383 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Photojournalists—Interviews. | Photojournalists—United States—Interviews. | Editors—United States—Interviews. | COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020- | Black Lives Matter movement.
Classification: LCC TR820 .W3525 2022 (print) | LCC TR820 (ebook) | DDC 777.0973—dc23/eng/20211005
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021047810
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021047811
ISBN: 978-1-032-18614-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-18615-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-25538-3 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003255383
Publisher’s Note
This book has been prepared from camera-ready copy provided by Lauren Walsh (author) and Stephanie Leone (book designer).
Typeset in Helvetica Neue by Stephanie Leone.
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders of images and to obtain their permission for the use of copyrighted material. The author apologizes for any errors or omissions in copyright acknowledgment and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions.
All websites and associated content that are referenced herein were verified as the book was completed.
To Isabelle and Annaliese, In hopes that our visions for a future free from injustice and suffering may come true.
On January 6, 2021, the world watched as the United States Capitol Building was breached by insurrectionists. The chaos of the day resulted in the deaths of five people along with extensive damage to the building itself. Many of the rioters self-documented with cell phones, but the general public, in both the US and abroad, watched these extraordinary events unfold because the media was there—and particularly, because visual journalists were there, documenting with cameras.
©
Ashley Gilbertson/VII
That day was labeled a “siege” and comparisons were made to the American Civil War.1 In fact, we learned in the wake of January 6, that the term “civil war” had been part of the conversation among individuals who helped organize the event.2 The bellicose rhetoric even proliferated in the aftermath. It was “the worst attack”; it was “the greatest assault”; it was an “invasion.”3
Figure 1.1 / Rioters threaten and chase officer Eugene Goodman inside the Capitol, January 6, 2021.
Figure 1.2 / A rioter smashes a window of the Capitol Building, January 6, 2021.
© Christopher Lee for Time
Figure 1.3 / Rioters inside an office in the Capitol Building, January 6, 2021.
© Ron Haviv/VII
But while this early 2021 date readily invited discussion of a home-grown war, the reality is that the preceding year was, arguably, one of the most conflicted in American history.
Wars take lives. Wars tear at the social fabric. Yet the US witnessed both of these outcomes, and more, in 2020 without any declarations of war. January 6 serves as an exemplary case for observing the crucial journalistic impact of imagery, as well as the vast reach of it, distilled into one single day. But it was 2020 as a whole, a period of groundbreaking social and political upheaval, in combination with a colossal epidemiological crisis, that rescripted our lives and redefined the working conditions of photojournalists.
So while there is much to be said about the spectacle nature of January 6 and attendant issues for press photographers, for this discussion, I am treating it as a culmination—a highly visual coda, of sorts, to a year that witnessed egregious political polarization, enormous racial reckoning, and the politicization of a pandemic, all of which played out in the news. And the dissemination of news, of course, is today unthinkable without images. To that end, the purpose of Through the Lens: The Pandemic and Black Lives Matter is to take a deeper look at the months prior to January 6, examining the multilayered conflicts that profoundly marked 2020, and especially to consider the intricacies of documenting and distributing the news with a camera.
2020, A GLOBAL GAME-CHANGER
As we well know, amidst all else that unfolded that year, 2020 can be defined by two historic upheavals, both of which move the conversation from the United States onto the global stage: the Covid-19 pandemic and the explosion of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement.
Covid-19 is a once-in-a-century occurrence that, as of this writing, has taken nearly four million lives around the world. The 2020 Black Lives Matter protests were the largest demonstrations in United States history and reverberated internationally.4 The former is the work of an “invisible” viral enemy while the latter directly relies on its visibility for political power. Both situations have presented unique challenges for photojournalism and public engagement. Significantly, both have forced photographers into a terrain defined by new ethical, technological, and safety (emotional as well as physical) concerns.
This collection of interviews, with photojournalists and photo editors, addresses those new challenges from the firsthand perspectives of those who covered 2020’s biggest stories. These glimpses into the difficulties, dangers, and shifting expectations during this extraordinary year offer insight into a wider field of journalistic experience. The emphasis here is more heavily on American practitioners, particularly in grappling with the coverage of Black Lives Matter, as it was this imagery that influenced the global BLM response. However, the inclusion of international voices—one from Wuhan, the originating point of the virus, and the other from Peru, which has had the highest per capita Covid mortality rate in the world—both deepens the conversation and shows how, at times, the experience of documenting crisis or death can be similar, no matter where one is in the world.5
Through the Lens exists as a special companion edition to my book Conversations on Conflict Photography, which explores the myriad nuances of photojournalistic coverage of war and humanitarian crisis. This volume also operates as a stand-alone compilation of interviews, documenting how the critical upheavals of 2020 massively impacted the realm of photojournalism.
THE LANDSCAPE
On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a Black American man, was murdered by then Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who pinned Floyd to the ground and pressed his knee into his victim’s neck until he no longer drew breath.6 Floyd, of course, was not the first Black American killed by a white officer and as 2020 unfolded, we learned he would also not be the last. But this killing was a turning point. It sparked an unprecedented reaction, likely influenced by a number of factors, including the existence of a nine-and-a-half minute video documenting the last moments of Floyd’s life, and by the pandemic itself, which had, for the preceding months, forced many in the US to live an isolated existence. The horrifying video and the need to feel engaged with others, alongside the sentiment that public systems were failing many Americans in the midst of the epidemic, drove record numbers of people to take to the streets and demand justice.7
What pushed these events beyond US borders was, in part, the media itself. The Black Lives Matter protests received more media attention than any other US protests in the last half century.8 From there, we witnessed what the BBC called a “global phenomenon”—or, as the New York Times put it, it “began with a video” and “shook the world.” 9 This wave of anger and demonstration—which rose and crashed down in every single continent save Antarctica—would not have occurred without the imagery produced in the United States, depicting the outpouring of emotion that swelled in reaction to Floyd’s death.10
In Belgium, for instance, activists didn’t just react to the visuals from America but demanded the removal of their country’s own visible legacies of colonial abuse:
For nearly a century, a statue of Belgian King Léopold II has stood sentinel in front of the royal palace in the center of Brussels, cast in metal from the mines of a nation that was once his personal property: the Belgian Congo. Now, thousands of protesters are demanding it be torn down, spurred by the Black Lives Matter protests in the United States.11
In Rio de Janeiro, hundreds gathered in May 2020 to protest the deaths of Black and favela youth at the hands of Brazilian police.12 Meanwhile, African media, in Kenya, South Africa, and beyond, “closely followed the Black Lives Matter protests in the United States, almost always in solidarity with the protesters.” In turn, reports the Council on Foreign Relations, there were protests across the continent, condemning local police brutality.13 And the list of global responses goes on and on.
The backdrop for these historic protests—which stand atop a history of institutionalized racism in the United States and signify related systematized injustices around the globe—was the Covid-19 pandemic. It began in Wuhan, China in late 2019, and during the ensuing months, there was little epidemiological agreement on what exactly this virus did to the body and how exactly it was transmitted. Epicenters moved around the globe, from Wuhan to Italy to New York and elsewhere. The WHO [World Health Organization] and the CDC [the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] didn’t fully understand what was happening and this led, at times, to panic and missteps.14 All the while, media outlets convulsed the public with minute-to-minute coverage and anxious questions: Can I get sick from my groceries? Is six feet far enough apart? Will my dog catch it, or give it to me? Twenty-year-olds are safe, right?
Although the public hungered for news, in reality, the pandemic provided a golden opportunity for the suppression of the free movement of information. The year witnessed “a dramatic deterioration” in access to information globally, according to Reporters Without Borders: “The coronavirus pandemic has been used as grounds to block journalists’ access to information sources and reporting in the field.”15 Beyond citing the virus as a reason—albeit an illegitimate one—to restrict journalists’ activities, many governments, globally, didn’t want accurate reporting on the virus itself, as such reporting would reveal massive infrastructural failures. For instance, Peru, which witnessed one of the highest excess death rates in the world, underreported its death tolls and public healthcare issues.16 Associated Press photographer Rodrigo Abd [Chapter 5], who is based there, addresses this in his interview: “It’s a terrible situation for the local news” because despite the reality of what’s happening on the ground, he explains, regional media face steep challenges and can fall prey to retribution if they report in ways that raise flags.17 At the same time, Peru has seen one of the highest Covid-19 death rates among journalists, revealing just how dangerous such coverage is.18 The truth-telling documentarian risks ending up on the wrong side of both the authorities and the virus itself.
As regards press freedom, China has long been censured by Western pro-democracy organizations for its policies of suppression and censorship.19 Local coverage of the pandemic was no exception. Reuters photographer Aly Song [Chapter 6], who is based in Shanghai and documented Covid-19’s impact in Wuhan in early 2020, describes in his interview a moment when “we fought to keep this imagery” from inside a Covid treatment facility. But it was imagery that local politicians hadn’t authorized, and so Song was forced to delete his work.
Beyond Peru’s under-reporting and China’s repressive actions, 2020 demonstrated that censorship exists all around the world. According to Reporters Without Borders, 73% of the countries the organization analyzed “are classified as having ‘very bad,’ ‘bad’ or ‘problematic’ environments for press freedom.”20 These are daunting numbers for a public that hopes to be informed and for the journalists themselves who take personal risks to bring information to the public.
ETHICAL ISSUES AND JOURNALISTIC OBSTACLES
These interviews about 2020’s momentous coverage are modeled after interviews I conducted for my book, Conversations on Conflict Photography. They give voice to a breadth of key
practitioners and emphasize the ethical and security challenges they face in creating and disseminating photographs, as well as the moral conundrums their work forces us, the viewing audience, to contend with. The following subsections highlight some of those challenges, providing context for the thoughts and experiences of the interviewees in Through the Lens.
/ Privacy Versus Visibility
How should the photojournalist balance the privacy of an individual subject against the public’s need to see and know? This dilemma played out, in differing ways, in the coverage of both the pandemic and Black Lives Matter.
With Covid-19, photographers wanting to convey the extent of the disease felt hampered at times by a lack of hospital access. Even with access, as both photo editors interviewed here describe, there can be hospital restrictions, some of which exist to protect patients’ privacy; those restrictions, in turn, made it harder to document faces and individual stories. Some critics have pointed out that the Trump administration, while loosening certain hospital privacy restrictions, held fast on the media constraints.21 Yet if the public had seen more extreme physical suffering, even death, early on in the pandemic in American media, would we have taken this virus more seriously? (As a reminder, in February 2020, President Trump referred to the virus as the Democrats’ “new hoax.” His base believed him.)22 Indeed, Sarah Elizabeth Lewis, an art historian at Harvard, questioned why US news was not more consistently showing the public the very tough images of severe illness from Covid. “Statistics alone, however clear, are not historically how we have communicated calamity on this scale,” she writes. “There is an inverse relationship between high numbers and comprehension: It is much harder to picture tragedy of the kind we are now witnessing than it is to visualize one person in pain, or an image that connects with a familiar aspect of the human condition, what psychologists have termed the ‘identifiable victim effect.’” 23 In short, putting a human face to the carnage has a greater impact on the viewer.
But the claim that we should be seeing other people’s extreme misery or their dying moments is incredibly complicated. Photographers in this collection, some of whom have spent time working abroad and covering faraway suffering, now faced a crisis at home. Should one document differently—more circumspectly, or with more of an emphasis on giving dignity to the sufferer—when photographing in your own backyard? It is known that Western viewers “look differently” at such imagery. They tend to be far more critical of photography that captures graphic suffering when the victim is local or looks like them. There is, as a sympathetic critic might explain it, a more profound experience of “that could be me.” Others would simply label it hypocrisy, ethnocentrism, or racism. Viewers, however, can feel their objections are well motivated, that they’re sympathizing with victims and their families, and thus wanting to safeguard them from prying eyes. In the end, this jumble of emotions elicits, at times, angry reactions directed at the photographer for not protecting a victim’s identity or for creating lurid imagery.24
Getty Images photographer Spencer Platt [Chapter 4], who didn’t gain early access to a hospital, talks about taking photos in public and what this means for the personal privacy of the subject. Speaking about images of patients on stretchers, he observes, “They are not
easy pictures to look at, but the threat this pandemic has posed outweighs an approach full of niceties.” At the same time, he acknowledges that covering conflict at home has forced him to think more carefully about tropes of suffering. Peru-based photographer Abd is also sensitive to the rights of photographed subjects, for instance, obtaining consent if photographing in private spaces like someone’s home. He is nevertheless adamant that intimate images of death must be part of the coverage: “[Y]ou need to show exactly what is going on. It’s the only way to document the truth of the story.”
/ Evolving Notions of Photojournalism
The privacy versus visibility debate plays out differently in BLM coverage. While critics argued for showing individual Covid victims and their private suffering, the Black Lives Matter protests in the US, by contrast, witnessed a new turn in the conversation, as some advocated that the photographic documentation should not isolate individual faces amid this collective display of outrage. Those who covered the protests found themselves caught up in evolving notions of what is acceptable or responsible documentary practice in public spaces. This was largely driven by updates in surveillance and concerns that new technologies can read identities in photographs, potentially putting activists at risk of retaliation by police.25 Photojournalists faced demands that they either not photograph, blur faces, or get express consent from individuals they have photographed.
Nina Berman [Chapter 2], a photographer based in New York, reacts to that last point:
Prior to this 2020 conversation, there was a strong consensus that with protests, and really any activities in public, journalists didn’t need to ask consent of people they were photographing because there is no expectation of privacy when someone is out on the street at a political event. And to ask consent is antithetical to what journalists are supposed to do, which is to witness and document. Now this view is being called into question, and I and others are reflecting on it, because of the use of facial recognition technology.
As Berman notes, there has long been an expectation that photojournalists can document in public without any restrictions on their work. This is because legally, in the US, everyone has that right. As this debate has unfolded, many photojournalists have insisted that in addition to their legal protections, uncensored documentation is a cornerstone of journalistic endeavor. As veteran photographer David Burnett put it, “Anything which gives away even the slightest freedom of observation is a detriment to both journalism, and society as a whole.” 26 But not everyone in the field agrees, pitting a newer perspective of “do no harm” (strongly advocating for obtaining consent in public) against a more traditional approach.27 Berman occupies a middle ground, sensitive to her legal rights and open to new modes of coverage.
The shifting nature of photojournalism itself and what constitutes responsible practice isn’t confined to questions of consent. Photographer Patience Zalanga [Chapter 3] pushes back against the established model of “neutral” journalism, advocating for captions that go beyond a traditional Who/What/Where/When and give, for example, greater historical context (see
pages 43-44 for her critique of the term “looters”). Her thinking resonates with a growing body of literature on “peace journalism,” in which scholars point out that mainstream media, in their reportage on any single event, don’t typically tackle the longer-term social structures that led to the event. As Jake Lynch, former Director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney, states, “By excluding or downplaying backgrounds and contexts, [the media] privileges dispositional—often essentialist—explanations for people’s behavior in conflict over situationist ones.”28 Specifically on coverage of crime or violent actions (such as Zalanga’s example of looting), writer Ibrahim Seaga Shaw observes that it is more difficult to notice, and thereby less common to cover, unseen violence like structural racism or social oppression, than to document what happens more overtly.29 The question of how to make visible a historical and systematized problem like racism in the US is a concern taken up in the forthcoming pages.
/ The Individual Behind the Lens
Does identity shape one’s visual output? New York Times photo editor Brent Lewis has said, “when trying to cover stories in the vein of black life, you probably should have someone who actually lived it. You need to have insight from someone who understands that realm.” 30 Photographer and writer Tara Pixley and her colleague Christina Aushana, a photo scholar, add a historical evaluation, looking back to the beginnings of the camera and the kinds of photos that depicted American slaves:
[E]arly photographers did not innocently or objectively document the “truth” of chattel slavery, but rather participated in the visual culture of American enslavement by staging photographic visions (and social fictions) of racial hierarchy: slave owners commissioned photographers to produce daguerreotype portraits of their slaves.31
The white supremacist perspective of those early photographers molded their output and, by extension, shaped our visual historical record.
So should the public know the racial identity of the photographer? Addressing photojournalism in contemporary America, Zalanga, for one, answers yes: “My identity as a Black woman is something that I do want people to know when they are looking at my photographs, because whether I’m documenting Black people, or especially when I’m documenting white people, knowing who I am as a Black woman behind the lens, means understanding a little more of the moment.”
Others interviewed offer differing takes, or point to practical considerations as well. Danese Kenon, Director of Video and Photography at the Philadelphia Inquirer, for instance, says [in Chapter 7], “If I’m assigning, I’m not just keeping identity in mind; I’m also thinking about people’s schedules, who is available to cover a story when we need it photographed.” For her, identity matters but is not the only or presiding factor informing photojournalistic work.
/ Does Diversity Matter?
US newsrooms remain, to this day, wildly undiversified. To give a few statistics: more than three-quarters of all newsroom employees are white, and over 60% are male.32 The numbers are even more disturbing in terms of newsroom leadership (for instance, editor positions). According to a 2019 report by the News Leaders Association, minorities comprise just 19.14% of leadership positions in journalism, and when factoring for both ethnicity and gender, the percentages drop further. Black women occupy just 3.04% of all newsroom leadership roles.33 Danese Kenon puts it simply in her interview: “[T]o my knowledge, there are maybe four Black women, including myself, who are DoPs [Directors of Photography] in some form of a traditional newsroom in the entire country.”
Perhaps the better version of my subhead question is: how and why does diversity matter? This is tackled across the interviews, and it’s not a topic that exists in a vacuum. Rather, it’s a question that has answers regarding access, safety, sensitivity, experience, history, audience, and quality journalism. At many papers, for instance, the diversity of the newsroom does not map to the demographics of the subscribing audience. Per a 2018 report, the Wall Street Journal has an 80% white newsroom and a 61% white audience, while the Morning Call, a newspaper in Pennsylvania, has a 95% white newsroom and a 38% white audience.34
Kainaz Amaria, Visuals Editor at Vox, believes such imbalances absolutely have impact. Talking specifically about visual news, she says, “Representation in photojournalism is critical, because those who control our news imagery control our collective visual narrative.” 35 MaryAnne Golon [Chapter 8], Director of Photography at the Washington Post, also addresses this topic in her interview, succinctly stating that “[y]ou go no place but up” with a more diverse newsroom.
/ Physical Health and Emotional Safety
The most obvious 2020 safety hazard was Covid-19 itself: how to safely cover a virus when one doesn’t even understand what it is or how it works? It’s a horror movie with an invisible enemy. This was the situation that photojournalists and editors faced for much of 2020, and it is addressed in almost every single interview, so potent was the experience for journalists trying to document this story. Accordingly, the interviewees talk, for example, about PPE [personal protective equipment], sanitizing their camera equipment, and their fears of getting sick or being too close to chemical disinfectant fumes. In one case, a photographer admits that he was too cavalier in the beginning of the pandemic.
On another level, interviewees describe the psychological and emotional fatigue of documenting a crisis that has no end in sight. It’s a weariness that feels inescapable. Added to this was the concern for some that their exposure could put their family at risk, too. Talking specifically about the toll of covering so much death, photographer Abd says, “sometimes it’s really hard; it’s very difficult to sleep, to get away from those emotions.” Kenon, from her perspective as DoP, adds, “This has been a physically grueling year for the newsroom. It has also been a very traumatizing year.” That anxiety was attached to each of 2020’s two biggest stories and plenty of times collided across the stories, for example,
when photographers covering BLM protests—mass gatherings in a moment that called for extreme isolation—worried about catching Covid. The media’s exposure to trauma was real.
War correspondents are known to suffer post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at rates equivalent to soldiers in active combat, a theme explored extensively in Conversations on Conflict Photography. But it is incredibly important to recognize that journalists can suffer anxiety and depression even when covering stories that occur far from traditional battlefields. In a piece describing the trauma experienced by journalists reporting on Covid, Olivia Messer, a reporter, writes hauntingly: “[T]he isolation of the pandemic had me convinced that my experience of drowning was unique.”36 What she learns, ultimately, is that the phenomenon is widespread.
Many of those interviewed here were covering not one but both of 2020’s major crises. In terms of her Black Lives Matter work, Zalanga describes an experience of delayed emotional impact: “It wasn’t until several days into the protests that it hit me.” The sheer weight of Floyd’s death, the import of this murder, tumbled down upon her as she stood alone and watched aerial footage of Minneapolis. Speaking in early 2021, as she recalls the stress and psychological exhaustion of the prior year, she adds, “We are getting closer each day to the trial of Derek Chauvin…I have time to prepare for my own self-care.”
/ Threats Against the Press
Zalanga’s stress also stemmed from concerns for her physical safety. The protests not only brought out supporters of the Black Lives Matter cause, but also white supremacists. Unfortunately, 2020 witnessed new levels of threats against journalists, particularly journalists of color.37 As Zalanga says pointedly, “I can take my camera gear off, so you don’t know I’m a journalist. But I can’t take my skin off. I’m still Black.”
What was not new to 2020 was rhetoric against journalists. In the American context, this has been well documented, with a spike in such language as former President Donald Trump entered the political arena. He had a perilously antagonistic relationship with the press, particularly press that was critical of him, and he often referred to media correspondents as the “enemy of the people,” a phrase that stands directly in opposition to the fundamental role of journalism in a democracy. CNN’s Chief International Anchor, Christiane Amanpour, offered a scathing rebuke: “I cannot tell you how many world leaders use the words ‘fake news’ to justify their crackdowns. If it’s a good enough bludgeon for the President of the United States, it’s more than good enough for us, they reason.” 38
While such language has had dreadful ramifications around the globe, it has also reverberated in the US, where it was first spoken. Trump’s rhetoric fostered a more dangerous climate for American journalists by emboldening ordinary people to harass representatives of the press. Kenon, for example, gives a terrifying description of multiple photographers in her department being attacked while they worked. As she states quite candidly, “I do remember worrying that our people are not prepared for this if it gets violent.”
In 2020, for the first time in its history, the International Crisis Group, an independent nongovernmental organization whose mission is to call attention ahead of deadly conflicts in hot
spots around the globe, warned of the risk of political violence in America.39 The Committee to Protect Journalists, in an end-of-year report, likewise noted “unprecedented attacks” against American journalists.40 The country’s highly polarized political terrain, the militarization of law enforcement at protests, and the vast spread of disinformation have all contributed to an incredibly dangerous moment in journalistic history.
JOURNALISM TODAY AND TOMORROW
The many ethical and safety concerns addressed here in brief are elaborated upon through the experiences of the photojournalists and photo editors whose interviews comprise the following pages. In the US, these myriad challenges gained in momentum and ricocheted down a pathway that led to January 6.
© Christopher Lee for Time
But the extraordinary challenges of 2020 exist much more broadly than just in the US. Reporters Without Borders says that the coming years will be make or break for journalism around the world, as we are facing “a geopolitical crisis (due to the aggressiveness of authoritarian regimes); a technological crisis (due to a lack of democratic guarantees); a democratic crisis (due to polarisation and repressive policies); a crisis of trust (due to suspicion and even hatred of the media); and an economic crisis (impoverishing quality journalism).” 41
Figure 1.4 / Pro-Trump rioters vandalize equipment belonging to Associated Press journalists outside the Capitol Building, January 6, 2021.
With over 1.4 trillion images created on a yearly basis these days, there is no denying the prodigious role that photos play in our lives, as modes of communication and documentation, and, without question, in the distribution and consumption of current events.
This collection aims to better inform the public of the inner workings of this vital mode of journalism, in the hope that the coming years will not be so dire. When the public understands, the public cares more. In caring more for the free press, we demand more of it. We hold journalism to high expectations—as we should. And we also support journalism. It is fundamental to a functioning democracy. That benefits all of us. As Shashi Tharoor, an Indian politician, writer, and former Under-Secretary-General for the United Nations, has said, “Freedom of the press is the mortar that binds together the bricks of democracy.” 42
Walsh NYC June 2021
NOTES
1 For instance, see Dan Barry, Mike McIntire, and Matthew Rosenberg, “‘Our President Wants Us Here’: The Mob That Stormed the Capitol,” New York Times, January 9, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/09/us/capitol-rioters.html; Gabrielle Gurley, “This, Too, Is America,” American Prospect, January 18, 2021, https://prospect.org/politics/this-too-is-america/; and Edward Lempinen, “The old guard and Trumpism are at war. Can the GOP survive?” Berkeley News, February 12, 2021, https://news.berkeley.edu/2021/02/12/the-old-guard-and-trumpism-are-at-war-can-thegop-survive/. For a piece on the trending of #CivilWar on Twitter, see Alyssa Therrien, “‘Civil War’ trends on Twitter as Trump supporters storm US Capitol,” Daily Hive, January 6, 2021, https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/washington-trump-civil-war-trending-twitter
2 See, for instance, Rebecca Heilweil and Shirin Ghaffary, “How Trump’s internet built and broadcast the Capitol insurrection,” Recode by Vox, January 8, 2021, https://www.vox.com/recode/22221285/trumponline-capitol-riot-far-right-parler-twitter-facebook, and Brandy Zadrozny and Ben Collins, “Violent threats ripple through far-right internet forums ahead of protest,” NBCNews.com, January 5, 2021, https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/violent-threats-ripple-through-far-right-internet-forums-aheadprotest-n1252923
3 For example, see Mary Clare Jalonick and Lisa Mascaro, “GOP blocks Capitol riot probe, displaying loyalty to Trump,” AP News, May 28, 2021, https://apnews.com/article/michael-pence-donald-trumpcapitol-siege-government-and-politics-4798a8617bacf27bbb576a4b805b85d9; Morgan Chalfant, “White
Lauren
House: Biden ‘remains committed’ to Jan. 6 probe,” The Hill, May 28, 2021, https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/555988-white-house-biden-remains-committed-tojan-6-probe; and Lois Beckett and Joan E. Greve, “Manchin criticizes Republican opposition to 6 January commission: ‘There’s no excuse’—as it happened,” The Guardian, May 27, 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2021/may/27/joe-biden-republicans-covid-coronavirus-uspolitics-latest-updates
4 See Maneesh Arora, “How the coronavirus pandemic helped the Floyd protests become the biggest in US history,” Washington Post, August 5, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/08/05/how-coronavirus-pandemic-helped-floydprotests-become-biggest-us-history/. Black Lives Matter, a sociopolitical movement, predates 2020. The hashtag #BlackLivesMatter first appeared on social media in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Black teenager Trayvon Martin in 2013. The movement gained in momentum after the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in New York City in 2014.
5 See Marco Aquino and Marcelo Rochabrun, “Peru revises pandemic death toll, now worst in the world per capita,” Reuters, June 1, 2021, https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/peru-almost-triples-official-covid19-death-toll-after-review-180000-2021-05-31/
6 In April 2021, Chauvin was convicted of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter in the death of Floyd. President Joseph Biden, Jr. noted the extraordinary rarity of this conviction. Few American officers are charged with murder in deaths that occur while in the line of duty, and only a small fraction of those charged are convicted. This situation has led to a widespread feeling that white officers kill Black individuals with impunity. In June 2021, Chauvin was sentenced to twenty-two-and-a-half years in prison.
7 See Maneesh Arora, “How the coronavirus pandemic helped,” Washington Post, August 5, 2020. The video of Floyd’s death was recorded with a cell phone by Darnella Frazier, who was seventeen at the time.
8 See Michael T. Heaney, “The George Floyd protests generated more media coverage than any protest in 50 years,” Washington Post, July 6, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/07/06/george-floydprotests-generated-more-media-coverage-than-any-protest-50-years/.
9 See Aleem Maqbool, “Black Lives Matter: From social media post to global movement,” BBC News (website). July 10, 2020, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53273381 and James Poniewozik, “As the Chauvin Trial Closes, Will Seeing Be Believing?” New York Times, April 19, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/19/arts/television/chauvin-trial-video.html
10 See Abigail Haworth, “The Global Fight for Black Lives, Marie Claire, November 23, 2020, https://www.marieclaire.com/politics/a34515361/black-lives-matter-international/
11 See Michael Birnbaum, “Black Lives Matter protesters in Belgium want statues of colonialist King Léopold II to come down,” Washington Post, June 9, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/blacklives-matter-protests-king-leopold-statues/2020/06/09/042039f6-a9c5-11ea-9063-e69bd6520940_story. html. King Léopold II of Belgium, who reigned from 1865 to 1909, was the owner and absolute ruler of the Congo Free State, which was a private mercenary project. The king made a fortune, as local inhabitants were forced into labor to collect ivory and harvest natural rubber. This colonial project was characterized by endemic brutality, including mass torture and murder. Millions of Congolese died, and the term “crimes against humanity” is thought to have been first used in description of the barbaric practices instituted during Léopold’s administration of the state.
12 See Edmund Ruge, “Black Lives Matter Protest Gathers Hundreds at Rio Governor’s Palace,” RioOnWatch, June 1, 2020, https://rioonwatch.org/?p=59984
13 See John Campbell, “Black Lives Matter Protests in Africa Shine a Light on Local Police Brutality,” Council on Foreign Relations (website), July 8, 2020, https://www.cfr.org/blog/black-lives-matter-protestsafrica-shine-light-local-police-brutality
14 For instance, see Berkeley Lovelace Jr., Jasmine Kim, and Will Feuer, “WHO walks back comments on asymptomatic coronavirus spread, says much is still unknown,” CNBC.com, June 9, 2020, https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/09/who-scrambles-to-clarify-comments-on-asymptomaticcoronavirus-spread-much-is-still-unknown.html and Tim Elfrink, Ben Guarino, and Chris Mooney, “CDC reverses itself and says guidelines it posted on coronavirus airborne transmission were wrong,” Washington Post, September 21, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/09/21/cdccovid-aerosols-airborne-guidelines/
15 See “2021 World Press Freedom Index: Journalism, the vaccine against disinformation, blocked in more than 130 countries,” Reporters Without Borders (website), April 17, 2021, https://rsf.org/en/2021-worldpress-freedom-index-journalism-vaccine-against-disinformation-blocked-more-130-countries.
16 Excess mortality is an epidemiological concept that accounts for deaths above what is expected in “normal” times. On excess death in Peru, see Luke Taylor, “Covid-19: Why Peru suffers from one of the highest excess death rates in the world,” BMJ, March 9, 2021, https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n611, as well as the first chart in Charlie Giattino, Hannah Ritchie, Max Roser, Esteban Ortiz-Ospina, and Joe Hassell, “Excess mortality during the coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19),” Our World in Data (website), as of June 6, 2021, https://ourworldindata.org/excess-mortality-covid. In June 2021, it became clear that the government had been under-reporting its country’s death toll, when a revised system for tallying Covid mortalities more than doubled Peru’s official toll. For more on under-reporting and/or healthcare failures, see Luis Felipe López-Calva, “A greater tragedy than we know: Excess mortality rates suggest that Covid-19 death toll is vastly underestimated in LAC,” UNDP: Latin America and the Caribbean (website), July 7, 2020, https://www.latinamerica.undp.org/content/rblac/en/home/presscenter/director-s-graph-for-thought/agreater-tragedy-than-we-know--excess-mortality-rates-suggest-t.html, and Simeon Tegel, “Peru’s Covid crisis: ‘Almost all Peruvians know someone who died,’” Al Jazeera, May 6, 2021, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/6/perus-covid-crisis-almost-all-peruvians-know-someonewho-died. Of note, “Peruvians had long suspected they weren’t getting the true picture” in terms of the nation’s Covid mortality rates. See “Covid: Peru more than doubles death toll after review,” BBC News (website), June 1, 2021, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-57307861
17 Although many suspected the government’s announced Covid numbers were too low, the “Ministry [of Justice and Human Rights] urged people to share only official information, accompanied by the hashtag ‘Don’t Spread #FakeNews.’” Meanwhile, “Peru became the first country in Latin America to implement prison sentences for creating and disseminating fake news” with regard to the pandemic. Alvarez-Risco et al, “The Peru Approach against the COVID-19 Infodemic: Insights and Strategies,” in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Vol 103(2) 583-86, published online June 2020, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7410469/#b28. See also notes 5, 6, and 7 in the Abd interview on press freedom concerns in Peru.
18 See Christopher Torchia, “Pandemic’s toll among journalists in Peru is especially high,” AP News, August 20, 2020, https://apnews.com/article/9b435c25a06906b71a4ca902972ee890
19 See, for instance, Beina Xu and Eleanor Albert, “Media Censorship in China,” Council on Foreign Relations (website), February 17, 2017, https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/media-censorship-china; Alex Matthews with Edward Yang, “China’s lack of press freedom causes problems for the world,” Deutsche Welle, April 21, 2020, https://www.dw.com/en/chinas-lack-of-press-freedom-causes-problems-for-the-world/a-53198195; and “One Country, One Censor: How China undermines media freedom in Hong Kong and Taiwan,” Comittee to Protect Journalists (website), December 16, 2019, https://cpj.org/reports/2019/12/one-countryone-censor-china-hong-kong-taiwan-press-freedom/
20 See “2021 World Press Freedom Index,” Reporters Without Borders (website), April 17, 2021.
21 See Peter Maass, “Hiding Covid-19: How the Trump Administration Suppresses Photography of the Pandemic,” The Intercept, December 27, 2020, https://theintercept.com/2020/12/27/covidphotography-hospitals/.
22 See Lauren Egan, “Trump calls coronavirus Democrats’ ‘new hoax,’” NBCNews.com, February 28, 2020, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-calls-coronavirus-democrats-new-hoax-n1145721
For an example of how this thinking continued months later, see, for instance, Chris McGreal, “‘It’s a hoax. There’s no pandemic’: Trump’s base stays loyal as president fights Covid,” The Guardian, October 3, 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/03/donald-trump-base-stays-loyal-president-fightscovid-19
23 See Sarah Elizabeth Lewis, “Where Are the Photos of People Dying of Covid?” New York Times, May 1, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/01/opinion/coronavirus-photography.html
24 See, for instance, the Introduction to Lauren Walsh, Conversations on Conflict Photography (London: Routledge, 2019), xi-xxi, for discussion of Western reaction to “faraway” suffering. For a focus on the imbalances in how newsrooms handle graphic imagery depending on whether the photographic subject is foreign or local, see Helen Lewis, “How Newsrooms Handle Graphic Images of Violence,” Nieman Reports, January 5, 2016, https://niemanreports.org/articles/how-newsrooms-handle-graphic-images-of-violence/.
25 See, for instance, Kelly McBride, “Should Images Of Protesters Be Blurred To Protect Them From Retribution?” KGOU.org, June 18, 2020, https://www.kgou.org/post/should-images-protesters-be-blurredprotect-them-retribution, and Brent Lewis, “Blurring Faces Is Anti-Journalistic and Anti-Human,” Wired, June 30, 2020, https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-blurring-faces-is-anti-journalistic-and-anti-human/, as well as note 2 in the Berman interview.
26 See David Burnett, “An Open Letter to the NPPA on Ethics,” PetaPixel (website), July 7, 2020, https://petapixel.com/2020/07/07/david-burnett-an-open-letter-to-the-nppa-on-ethics/
27 See Eliana Miller and Nicole Asbury, “Photographers are being called on to stop showing protesters’ faces. Should they?” Poynter Institute (website), June 4, 2020, https://www.poynter.org/ethics-trust/2020/ should-journalists-show-protesters-faces/. For more on “do no harm” photography, see: Authority Collective, “Do No Harm: Photographing Police Brutality Protests,” press release/open letter, May 31, 2020, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hFvB_cGM_TfVVNuXV-Jg6mO4DIPLvNoC/view
28 Quoted in Ibrahim Seaga Shaw, Jake Lynch, and Robert A. Hackett (eds.), Expanding Peace Journalism (Sydney: Sydney University Press, 2011), 97-98.
29 Ibid. Shaw critiques this kind of journalism and advocates for deeper contextualization of underlying social conditions in order to support peace-building processes.
30 Quoted in Tara Pixley, “Why We Need More Visual Journalists and Editors of Color,” Nieman Reports, May 15, 2017, https://niemanreports.org/articles/a-new-focus/
31 See Christina Aushana and Tara Pixley, “Protest Photography Can Be a Powerful Tool For and Against Black Lives Matter,” Nieman Reports, July 13, 2020, https://niemanreports.org/articles/protestphotography-and-black-lives-matter/
32 See Elizabeth Grieco, “Newsroom employees are less diverse than US employees overall,” Pew Research Center (website), November 2, 2018, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/11/02/newsroomemployees-are-less-diverse-than-u-s-workers-overall/
33 See Meredith D. Clark, et al, “2019 ASNE Diversity Survey: Detailed Tables,” NewsLeaders.org (website), September 10, 2019, https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5d2df6a6231a750001881b75/t/5d76c698c87 c4c7550640ec2/1568065177406/Summary+Tables+2019_9.6.19.pdf. More information about the 2019 ASNE Diversity Survey can be found here: https://www.newsleaders.org/2019-diversity-survey-results
34 See the 2018 results in American Society of News Editors, “How Diverse Are US Newsrooms?” American Community Survey/ASNE, Census 2011–15, https://googletrends.github.io/asne/?view=4
35 See Sahar Amer, “Diverse storytelling enhances your journalism,” Reuters, September 20, 2019, https:// www.reutersagency.com/en/reuters-community/the-importance-of-strong-diverse-photojournalism/
36 See Olivia Messer, “The COVID Reporters Are Not Okay. Extremely Not Okay.” Study Hall (website), May 6, 2021, https://studyhall.xyz/the-reporters-are-not-okay-extremely-not-okay/.
37 See Courtney Douglas, “Amid Black Lives Matter protests, a crushing moment for journalists facing record attacks, arrests at the hands of law enforcement,” Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (website), September 4, 2020, https://www.rcfp.org/black-lives-matter-press-freedom/, and Elahe Izadi and Paul Farhi, “‘The terror of wearing both a press badge and black skin’: Black journalists are carrying unique burdens,” Washington Post, June 1, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/the-terror-ofwearing-both-a-press-badge-and-black-skin-black-journalists-are-carrying-unique-burdens-rightnow/2020/06/01/2266a258-a414-11ea-b473-04905b1af82b_story.html
38 See Christiane Amanpour’s testimony at the hearing on “Human Rights at Home: Media, Politics, and the Safety of Journalists,” US Committee on Security and Cooperation in Europe, delivered July 23, 2020, https://www.csce.gov/sites/helsinkicommission.house.gov/files/Testimony%20of%20Christiane%20Aman pour.pdf
39 Robert Malley, “Crisis Group Turns Focus to Risk of Electoral Violence in the US,” International Crisis Group (website), October 2, 2020, https://www.crisisgroup.org/content/crisis-group-turns-focus-risk-electoralviolence-us
40 See Katherine Jacobsen, “In 2020, US journalists faced unprecedented attacks,” Committee to Protect Journalists (website), December 14, 2020, https://cpj.org/2020/12/in-2020-u-s-journalists-faced-unprecedented-attacks/. For information on journalists targeted specifically by US police, see Marc Tracy and Rachel Abrams, “Police Target Journalists as Trump Blames ‘Lamestream Media,’ for Protests,” New York Times, June 1, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/01/business/media/reporters-protests-george-floyd.html; Tracy Brown, “As Trump blames ‘lamestream media,’ journalists arrested and injured during protests,” Los Angeles Times, June 1, 2020, https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-06-01/journalists-attackedarrested-george-floyd-protest-coverage; and “Daily Briefing: Some journalists arrested, injured by police during protests,” Pew Research Center (website), June 1, 2020, https://www.journalism.org/dailybriefings/2020/06/01/some-journalists-arrested-injured-by-police-during-protests/
41 See “2021 World Press Freedom Index,” Reporters Without Borders (website), April 17, 2021.
42 From comments given at UN Headquarters in observance of World Press Freedom Day, May 3, 2001.
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